Westside Road Estate
Ben, Al and Mark McWilliams at the Two Birds Estate Vineyard
Arista Winery is currently developing our 36 acre Westside Road Estate by planting multiple blocks of Pinot Noir to various Dijon, Pommard, and Heritage clones. Our intent is to use the cool climate of the Russian River Valley and match precise root stocks and clones of Pinot Noir to our unique micro-climate. In the middle reaches of the Russian River Valley, fog typically arrives in the late evening and retreats to the ocean the following morning. This natural cooling effect can drop the temperature 35 to 40 degrees from the daytime high to the evening low. The warm days allow full flavor development while the cool nights allow the development of the natural acidity - an aspect critical to the development of long lasting Pinot Noir. Over the course of a growing season this warming and cooling pattern can allow for a 10 to 20 percent extended growing season.
After digging 10 to 12 soil pits per acre, we have identified the unique soil pattern of our estate. We were happy to find a healthy mix of Sandy Silt Loam and gravely soils. This is not surprising however, as these soils follow a similar pattern to the Williams Selyem Estate and the Allen Ranch, our neighbors on either side.
We chose to plant primarily Pommard, Swan, and Mt. Eden clones on rootstocks 101-14 and 3309. The cuttings were carefully selected from some of the most famed vineyards in California. We feel that this mix of "Heritage" clones have proven themselves in the Russian River Valley over the past 30 to 40 years and will produce wines that truly express site or terroir.
Each individual block has a unique irrigation system and vine row orientation to maximize optimum fruit and flavor development. Row spacing throughout the estate will be dense planting of 5' x 7' and 4'x 4' in certain vigorous blocks which translates to over 2000 vines per acre.
As our philosophy states, we feel that wines made in the vineyard are well-behaved in the cellar. To this point, every step is taken to ensure that no corner is cut in the planning, planting, or farming of any of our vineyards.
As of 2009 we released our Two Birds Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir and 2010 we released our Harper's Rest Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir.
Planting of the Seven Stories Vineyard